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Messages - JosephKell

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31
DFRPG / Re: Weird spell idea led to debate about the laws of magic...
« on: August 24, 2010, 09:38:07 PM »
1.  I think for such a thing to be useful in a social setting the target needs to know (or at least strongly suspect) you did it.  To do a more spooky thing to make the person paranoid, you could just do multiple things (like moving their coffee mug, opening things they just closed, and a bunch of other things while their back is turned).

2.  It's a maneuver that applies the aspect "You Just Got Slapped!" on the target.  But you said it makes a loud clapping (slapping) sound and impacts the person's face like they just got slapped.  So it doesn't seem subtle.

3.  Any aspect can be tagged for any purpose that makes sense.

Let's say in one scene your character got jumped in an alley and two thugs end up busting your leg (moderate consequence).  The big boss that ordered the hit could invoke the consequence in a social setting to something about your incompetence or getting too old.

32
DFRPG / Re: The Laws of Magic and Loss of Refresh
« on: August 24, 2010, 09:22:45 PM »
(A Killer is a Killer IMHO.)
I agree, I don't think people that walk around murdering people should get a free walk on the path to darkness just because they don't use magic.

I just think magic is sort of a "fast track" to darkness because of the necessity of belief in purpose.

So you could put a third class of refresh consumption into your game that relates to people that just do horrible things.  It would just have a slower curve.  Like start a [-0], then go up to [-2] max, and stretch out the amount of "offenses" before aspects start changing.

33
DFRPG / Re: Invasion and Enthralling Question
« on: August 24, 2010, 01:34:04 AM »
Necessarily?
If you use magic to rip someone's mind apart, that is a 4th law violation.  You have changed their mind.  Depending on how you go about ripping their mind apart, it may not be a law breaker.  If you blindly tear a mortal's mind apart (with no intention of programming them to a purpose) you might not get a lawbreaker for doing it to a monster (you scrambled without looking in at whatever nastiness is in there).  But to a freewilled mortal?  Definite Lawbreaker.

I would totally insist on a lawbreaker for someone that read the mind of anything.  "When you look into the void, the void looks into you."  I don't want to know what is inside a demon's mind.  The Lawbreakers represent loss of humanity.

Quote
You mean you couldn't just do a Psychomantic Divination?  I didn't see anywhere that you have to do a Take Out to read someone's mind.
Of course you didn't see anything about take outs in psychomancy.  There is very little actually there.  All it says is that emotion reading is like Divination.  Se technically Pscyhomancy should only be able to communicate aspects (permanent and temporary) of an emotional or knowledge.

To actually sift through their memories you would have to achieve a take out (203).  And as long as the described take out is in line with the situation it works.  So if your mental attacks were made with the goal of reading their mind (and you have the power to read minds) then you can take the person out and start plucking memories.

34
DFRPG / Re: Furycrafting.
« on: August 24, 2010, 12:42:44 AM »
Well any wizard can create light but they still need to buy their powers.
If Basic Furycrafting included a caveat (like Soulgaze) that certain conditions can reduce the cost to [-0].

35
The exact words are "The spell is cast like evocation: power first, control later, all done in one exchange."

1.  Evocation doesn't utilize Lore (except as a cap on specializations and max slots on foci), so getting your Lore to meet/beat the Complexity is not necessary.  Complexity still represents total shifts of power necessary, so you "just" have to be able to call up all the power at once (so big rituals are going to blow your mind with consequences).  And you have to successfully control it with Discipline, fortunately you should almost always qualify for a sponsored fate point (see #2 below for why).

So if you have Seelie Magic and want to do a healing spell (which is in their growth portfolio) that has a complexity of 8 to reduce a moderate consequence's healing time to that of a mild consequence (and to justify a beginning to its healing), you need to be able to call up 8 shifts of power.

2.  No sponsored magic gives all types of thaumaturgy at the speed of evocation (and some don't give it at all).  In fact, the ritual part of sponsored magic doesn't even give full thaumaturgy, each one specifically lists its area of focus.  Since those that do list their themes and are all tied to the sponsored magic, most usages should qualify for the sponsored invoke.

36
DFRPG / Re: The Laws of Magic and Loss of Refresh
« on: August 23, 2010, 10:50:28 PM »
Soul != Free Will/Mortal.

And I think Bob's exact words were more of it not breaking the 1st law, but killing Renfields can give a wizard a very bad habit, it isn't a big step from killing broken thralls to killing people.

Fae have souls, they just aren't mortal or free willed.  Angels are only souls, when they appear they make a vessel from ectoplasm (just like demons).

A mindless thrall doesn't have free choice or free will.  Since a major theme of DFrpg (it is like the first universe plot point of chapter 1) is "Monsters have Nature, Mortals have Choice."  A thing that doesn't have choice is not mortal (might not be a monster either).  In this case, I would group a thrall in the same category of rabid animals (Renfields/rough thralls) or trained animals (thralls).  Thralls (but not rough thralls) might not be beyond recovery, but Renfields are.

A practitioner that goes so dark side from Lawbreakers as to be negative refresh is no longer a mortal because their mind is so bent.  A Serial Killer would also be a "pure mortal" version of a negative refresh character.

37
DFRPG / Re: The Laws of Magic and Loss of Refresh
« on: August 23, 2010, 09:33:58 PM »
If the person was a Renfield, then he wasn't "mortal" anymore.  If someone has had their mind twisted to the point he can't recover, then he is little more than a breathing doll.

And even the more "mortal" supernaturals (like Changelings and White Court Vampires) only qualify as mortal if they are positive refresh AND not acting monstrous at the time.  Notice in the books that Mouse only growls at Thomas when he goes into "feeding mode," but not when he goes "silver hero."

38
DFRPG / Re: Invasion and Enthralling Question
« on: August 23, 2010, 07:38:01 AM »
If someone else is invading your mind, and they happen to be there at the moment, is it breaking the Law to, in self defense, tear their minds to pieces?

Assuming you have that level of skill or power, of course.
If you counter attack their mind with magic, it is a violation.

If you are just throwing them out of your mind and it causes them to lose a part of his, that is his own problem.  Or if you "snap your mind shut" which causes a portion of the attacker's mind to be lost.

As I understand it, forcing someone out of your mind doesn't require magic.  Just tremendous will (Discipline or Conviction depending).

And in DFrpg, messing with your mind involves inflicting mental stress then doing consequences.  Getting to the point of sifting through your thoughts means you are already taken out.

39
DFRPG / Re: Furycrafting.
« on: August 23, 2010, 06:41:22 AM »
Continued to set benchmarks.

Inhuman Strength seems the most appropriate initial benchmark.

-2 Refresh gives +3 might for lifting/breaking, +1 Might when grappling (plus extra damage when you inflict stress), Might always gives +1 when assisting/modifying, and Hammer Blows +2 physical stress when you attack outright.

A Knight Terra seems to strike me as having at least Inhuman Strength level, so let's say they have Supernatural Strength level.  So a Knight Terra has about -4 refresh of Earthcrafting.

A Knight Aeris should also have about -4 refresh, and that -4 should allow them to fly in armor.  So -4 gets the air fury 6 Might (lift 2 + 4 for "effortlessly") plus maybe the shifts for Athletics to fly fast (I would price it at a minimum 1 shift per zone that can be transitioned as a supplemental action, the -1 penalty for using a supplemental action is not negated).  So let's say Aircrafting at total -4 gets 6 Might and 2 Athletics (now this is in armor, and not leather to protect against wind chafing).

So perhaps each -1 refresh of a crafting is worth -1 of a power or 2 skill points for the fury.

Since this effectively makes all Furycrafting a form of Modular Abilities, then just getting your foot in the door means you need to pay for the pool (before you put refresh into the pool).  Modular Abilities is -2, but since this is a bit more restricted (Earth pool can't give Air effects and vice versa), maybe a smaller overhead (I think -1) is more appropriate.

So a Knight Terra would have Earthcraft [-1] and Earth Fury Refinement [-4].  Plus whatever stunts necessary to be a better soldier.

A Knight Ignus's fire blasts would be a variation on Breath Weapon (normally -2), which is basically a 2 shift attack, each extra refresh could be +2 shifts.  So -5 refresh (Firecraft and 4 Fire Fury Refinements) can do 6 shifts worth of fire attacks.

It makes the nobles who have many strong furies REALLY expensive.  Bernard (under this proposal) is at a minimum -8 refresh: Earthcraft [-1], Earth Fury Refinement [-4], Woodcraft [-1], Wood Fury Refinement [-2].  While Amara (using just her Air Fury) isn't paying the entry fee twice, so for -8 refresh, should could have 7 Air Fury Refinements (allowing her to generate 14 skill points for her not quite nameless Air Fury, not sure yet how to deal with some of the other stuff, like blocks against arrows or shutting down a storm).

40
DFRPG / Re: Furycrafting.
« on: August 23, 2010, 06:06:53 AM »
Would a Moderator please move this? I wasn't paying attention, and put it in the wrong part of the forum. Could it go to DFRPG?
KOFFEYKID and I were working on Furycrafting. Here is what I have so far:

Basic Crafting -1
You can operate furylamps, run faucets, and march on causeways. Congrats, Newb
So basically this is minor stuff, not sure I would charge [-1] for that, maybe [-0] (negates Pure Mortal bonus).  I guess it also allows something like +2 to Long-Term Activities as it relates to traveling the roads, but I am not sure that is really worth a whole [-1].  It requires the roads and most scenes don't occur while walking cross country.

Quote
Aircrafting -2
First Power, Inhuman Speed
-2 Up to Supernatural Speed
-2 Veils
-2 Flight
-2 Channeling Fury (-1 Weathercrafting, Ritual Equivalent)
-2 Manifest Fury
-3 Mythic Speed (Needs Supernatural Speed), needs to be activated, take 2 Physical stress per exchange active without Toughness Armor
So with just Aircrafting at -2, you have the equivalent of Inhuman Speed?

Then paying 2 more (total -4) is Supernatural Speed.

-2 for veils gives veiling as Greater Glamours?

Manifest Fury is as of yet unexplained.

And why is Mythic Speed cost -3 (I assume ontop of -2 Aircrafting and -2 Supernatural speed)?  And with a physical stress cost?  What about the Salt Weakness?

-2 more is for flight?  While Wings costs -1, this just doesn't seem right.  I think it needs more to be about how strong your air fury's effective Might is.  It takes an effective Lifting of 5 to carry a messenger wearing "flying leather" (Armor:1).  But 6 for a "heavy-set adult" (since the next step up beyond that is large furniture, I think 6 is fine for a knight in full armor).  But this does nothing to adjudicate strength.

You may ask where 5 and 6 come from.  Lifting an adult is usually 1 or 2 lifting, but that is for a "lift and put" type maneuver.  A "lift and move a short distance" is difficulty + 2 and "lift and move 'effortlessly'" is difficulty + 4.  So Max's "bounding leaps" might require Might 4 (he is a big guy and wears armor) and Athletics 3 (to long jump 3 zones).

This just looks like a paint job and doesn't seem to do Codex Alera justice.

I really think a fury system that is based on "committing" fury strength would work better.

For example, if Amara's Air Fury had a total pool of 9 shifts, she could manifest it with 5 devoted to might (to carry her) and 4 to stealth to veil her.  But this does nothing for devoting shifts to Athletics (to go fast) or Endurance (to keep it up).  But how do you keep a person from devoting all shifts to the same thing?  (For Air it might not matter so much, but for other things, like Fire, it does).

Then you just give furies free versions of physical immunity.  Like an Air Fury has Physical Immunity to everything but Salt (and lots of Earth can inhibit the ability to use Air).  All Fury crafters know this, so it is +2 discounted, Salt isn't hard to get, so that is another +2.

So in the example of Amara flying, if someone were to attack her with salt, it would deal physical stress to the Air Fury (if you inflict a consequence it can be compelled to cause it to temporarily fail or if it is taken out it fails for the scene if not longer).  A Salt Arrow would be a "double" attack.  It would act as an arrow (weapon:2) against the flier and as salt (weapon:0, but satisfies the catch) against the fury.

To move a sky carriage, multiple aircrafters work together, some do maneuvers for the leader to tag to increase his (or her) fury's effective might.  A Sky Carriage might be a Legendary object, so you would need an effective Might of 12 (plus whatever you want for athletics for speed or stealth for veiling); 16 shifts get your a decently fast carriage.  I think the Sky Carriages had 4 bearers?  So that is +6 from their maneuvers (merging their wind streams), so the leader needs 10 shifts of Air Fury (that is pretty extreme).  Alternatively you could have 3 bearers do the lifting (going for 12 with +4 is easier than going for 16 with +6) and another do the pushing (Athletics).  Or you could just sum their shifts and not do the aids.

A Knight Ignus might have a 7 shift fury.  And could devote 4 shifts to effect 2 zones and 3 for a Weapon:3 effect.

The only problem is how to price the pool.  Should each shift be 1 refresh?  That seems really expensive, maybe 2 shifts per refresh?  Maybe base it on the type of fury, Air Furies might need more points per refresh than Fire.  I think appropriate pricing would come out of figuring how many shifts would need to be dedicated for specific effects then to (almost) arbitrarily decide what different amount of refresh should be expected to accomplish.

One way that occurs to me as a limiter for devoting shifts is having the effect be like a control roll.  Fallout makes it less effective (which may make it fail) or backlash tires out the crafter.  But this runs the risk of making one skill the "god" skill that controls all furies.  You could have different skills bound to each fury, or based on use.

Using Firecrafting in a social setting might rely on the specific social skill (placing a fearful scene aspect would be Intimidation, a rousing speech might be Presence), while fire blasts might be Weapons rolls.

This is all probably jumbled.

41
I think a simple way to figure out "character threat" would be to sum up all the powers that can apply to a given action for offense, then sum up all defensive powers, then add each to the applicable skills.

So a black court vampire (OW 85) would have an offensive values.
Physical (9)
- Fists: 3
- Blood Drinker: 1
- Inhuman Speed: 1 (normally 2, but only initiative and ignore supplemental action penalty for moving apply for offense)
- Weapon:4

Mental (6)
- Discipline: 3
- Attacks Mental Stress: 1 (this an arbitrary value I assign to the ability to attack mental stress, since non-practitioners/non-feeding dependent characters have low Discipline)
- Inhuman Speed: 1
- Blood Drinker: 1
- Weapon:0

Social (2)
- Intimidation: 2
- Blood Drinker could apply, but usually by the time you are drinking people's blood, you've already won.

Then it has defenses
Physical 13 (Dodging 4, 7 stress boxes)
- Athletics: 3
- Inhuman Speed: 1
- Armor:2
Mental 5 (Discipline 3, 2 stress boxes)
Social 2 (Rapport 0, 2 stress boxes)

Ability to do maneuvers is similar to the ability to attack, you just ignore anything having to do with Weapon/Armor.

42
DFRPG / Re: Furycrafting.
« on: August 23, 2010, 02:51:11 AM »
How do these work?  These look just like costs, isn't pricing powers before determining what they do sort of like putting the cart before the horse?

Can you detail at least one of them?

43
DFRPG / Re: Good 'Neutral Ground' for Los Angeles?
« on: August 22, 2010, 10:30:52 PM »
I love it... any reason why?
I've made all UU churches ANG in my games.  Come one, come all...
But aren't most <1 refresh supernatural things hedged out of places of worships?

44
DFRPG / Re: Wizard careers?
« on: August 22, 2010, 04:15:45 AM »
Part of the thrill?  Maybe carry a spear as well?

45
DFRPG / Re: Wizard careers?
« on: August 22, 2010, 02:38:00 AM »
What about a "Safari Guide"?  Most exotic game is illegal to hunt.  But what wealthy poacher can resist the lure of hunting a real monster?

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